1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a room air conditioner, and more particularly to a room air conditioner box having isolation wall sections which can be easily assembled/disassembled with/from each other and can reduce a noise while the room air conditioner is being operated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, an air conditioner is an apparatus for conditioning air in a house or an office with a properly adjusted indoor temperature and humidity agreeable to a human body. In practice, the air conditioner may be controlled to keep an indoor temperature of about 28.degree. C. and an indoor humidity of about 65-75% during hot summer days, while keeping the indoor temperature of about 18.degree. C. and the indoor humidity of about 55-70% during cold winter days.
In such an air conditioner, and especially in a room air conditioner, all the operative components thereof are assembled in one unit. Within the room air conditioner unit, an evaporator and an exhaust grill sections for uniformly dispersing the conditioned air to a room are located toward the room, and a condenser part which is super-heated during its operation is extended out of the room so as to be cooled by outdoor air.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an exterior appearance and a structure of a conventional room air conditioner 100. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, conventional room air conditioner 100, to perform refrigeration cycles, has a compressor 1 for compressing a refrigerant gas with a high pressure and a high temperature, a condenser 2 for gradually condensing the high temperature and high pressure refrigerant gas transferred from compressor 1 to a liquid phase by a heat exchange, an expansion valve 3 for reducing the pressure of the liquid-phase refrigerant transferred from condenser 2 to change the liquid-phase refrigerant to a low temperature refrigerant in a multiphase of liquid-gas, and an evaporator 4 for evaporating the low temperature multiphase refrigerant with an absorption of environmental heat and transferring the evaporated refrigerant gas to compressor 1.
Conventional room air conditioner 100 further has a base plate 5 for supporting all of the operative components thereon, first and second isolation wall sections 6 and 7 vertically mounted on base plate 5 with predetermined intervals to separate the evaporator part from the condenser part, a driving motor 9 fixed to a motor mount 8 which is vertically assembled on base plate 5, located between first and second isolation wall sections 6 and 7, a blower 10 and a fan 11 fixed to both ends of a driving shaft 9a of driving motor 9, a control unit 12 assembled on first isolation wall section 6 for the control of the room temperature, a grill section 13 assembled in front of first isolation wall section 6 for allowing indoor air to pass therethrough and uniformly dispersing the conditioned air to a room, and a cap member 14 mounted on base plate 5 to cover all the operative components mounted on base plate 5.
First isolation wall section 6 has a barrier 51 vertically assembled on base plate 5 to separate and isolate the evaporator part from the condenser part, a scroll 52 assembled with base plate 5 and barrier 51 for guiding the circulation of the air drawn by blower 10 and conditioned through evaporator 4 to the room and gathering a condensate falling from evaporator 4 for drainage out of the unit, an evaporator cover 53 assembled with scroll 52 for guiding the circulation of the conditioned air to the room in cooperation with scroll 52 so that the conditioned air is expelled through grill section 13, a brace 54 assembled with second isolation wall section 7 and barrier 51 for providing support between first and second isolation wall sections 6 and 7 at predetermined intervals, and fixing members 55 assembled on the lower part of scroll 52 to fix a temperature sensor (not shown) for sensing the temperature of the drawn indoor air.
Second isolation wall section 7 has a structure assembled on base plate 5 to separate and isolate the condenser part from the evaporator part. Second isolation wall section 7 guides the outdoor air drawn by fan 11 so that the drawn air passes through condenser 2 and then is expelled outside thereof through an outlet port 14a of cap member 14.
However, the conventional room air conditioner box has drawbacks in that first isolation wall section 6 is composed of a large number of parts such as metal barrier 51, scroll 52, evaporator cover 53, brace 54, and fixing members 55, and these parts are separately prepared by a press bending before assembly and thus relatively high material and labor costs are involved during the manufacturing process. Further, since a large number of parts of first isolation wall section 6 must be assembled one-by-one on base plate 5 by assembling screws, such assembling work would greatly reduce the productivity of the room air conditioner.
Also, when there is an error in blower 10, and accordingly, when blower 10 and driving motor 9 must be disassembled from room air conditioner 100, all of scroll 52, barrier 51 and evaporator cover 53 must be disassembled from room air conditioner 100.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,499 discloses an air conditioner box separable into upper and lower parts thereof. The air conditioner box has an upper housing in which upper flanges are outwardly and upwardly formed along lower edges of both side walls of the upper housing, a lower housing in which lower flanges are outwardly and downwardly formed along upper edges of both side walls of the lower housing, and channel members, each of which is slidably disposed around the upper and lower flanges. However, even though the assembling and disassembling of the air conditioner box is simple, since the structure is assembled only by the channel members, the structural stability thereof is low.